The context yesterday of nkjv@Matthew:5:1-12 must be held close today in order to understand it. This passage is a continuation of the same sermon, the concepts presented in the introduction have not been dropped off or let go. What are these concepts that I asked you to hold onto?

Those which will be blessed:

The poor in spirit.

They that mourn.

The meek.

They that hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The merciful.

The pure in heart.

The peacemakers.

They which are persecuted for righteousness sake.

How are they blessed:

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

They shall be comforted.

They shall inherit the Earth

They shall be filled (of righteousness)

They shall obtain mercy

They shall see God

They shall be called the children of God

Your reward shall be great in heaven.

Notice that everyone of these are spoken of in the plural as a group, those/they/theirs and even you. The individual is not the focus of this sermon, rather it is the group, you in plural collective form. Therefore you (yous) are the salt of the earth, (yous) are light of the world, (yous) are the city on the hill, (yous) are the candle lit to light the entire room, let (yous) good works shine before men. Consider as well that an individual himself is not a kingdom, he does not himself alone inherit a Earth, he alone is not the children; it can only be said that he is a part of a much larger group. We are only part of that larger group be it known because of the work of Christ.

What is man doing?

Once again man is clearly corrupting all things declared/revelealed and in many ways. The diagnosis was efficiently given in the early chapters of Genesis: becoming gods in their own eyes. Even though these gods (in their own eyes) travel in large predatory packs/collectives, they are composed largely of self serving me's and I's deriving some tangible mutual benefit in being collected as the us. Yet they are still very much individual as observed in the many factions and loose associations and frictions comprising the group.

They believe pursuit of and issuance of self to be "the light". They are the "enlightened" ones. If there is darkness in this world it is due to lack of the truer self.

They are immensely opposed to the concept of being poor of spirit, vehemently avoiding the confession of being in a state of extreme debt to a just God unable by their own self worth and personal accomplishments to pay themselves back out of debt, deserving of death and hell fire having been firmly warned but instead tossing aside God's merciful and straight forward provision, choosing instead their vain imaginations and manufactured images of God. They flatly reject mourning for that blessed union with God which has been lost, that and the glorious reflection of God both man and women one time expressed. They esteem so greatly their own human potential minus God that they refuse to humble themselves to the dark truth of what they by their own making they have since actually become. They hunger and thirst for a righteousness that they themselves conceive and profit from. They are unmerciful to those that by God's spoken word oppose them. Not only are they defiled (though they won't admit it), but they perceive everyone and everything else to be defiled or relative as well. They prophecy peace where there is no peace. They receive little push back or persecution being in majority and having their true intents hidden in the secret.

All of these attributes are well documented in the scriptures being from near the beginning to deep into the end times with very little variance or diminishment.

What is God doing?

God is doing one thing, the same thing that HE has being working towards all along: providing HIS Son incarnate in the seed of Eve as originally promised. Though it has repented God to have made man at times, HE has not quit man, it has been planned for from before creation, it has been promised directly to man, it has been worked towards for millenia, this God's promise will never ever fail. God has walked mankind step by step towards grasping on to HIS greatest provision, now is the time HE felt it best to fulfill it. Now HE is showing considerable light upon it in the person of one Jesus Christ.

What does this passage tell us about the about the commands and faith of Jesus that saints are to keep/guard?

We are not the light in ourselves, we are objects on the face of this dark world that somehow are reflecting the light shown from above. It has little to do with any individual choice made on our own initially, anything that we made ourselves smart enough to be. It is only by the grace of God. And it is only as a collective group of believers by the "habitus" of the Holy Spirit that this reflection begins to shine.

Poor of spirit? Mourning? Meek? Hungering and thirsting for God's righteousness? Merciful in the mercy shown to us? Pure in heart? Seeking peace for others with God?

Increasingly so!

Persecuted? In this world? If we are doing it right!

Through Jesus and therefore us His collective God is preserving this current world as with salt packed into a decaying piece of meat until as many as will come into the kingdom have come. How can we be the salt unless we have become these things presented further in this sermon?

nkjv@Revelation:14:12@ Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.